A special gondola made for NEWS to use in Tokyo Dome took them high enough to see all of their fans inside the dome, reports Nikkan Sports and Sanspo.com.

The popstar group started the Tokyo concerts of their tour on September 25, which will continue till tomorrow. It is the first tour the group has been on in 20 months.

“I know some of you have been thinking ‘your concert’s overdue NEWS’, but we’re finally here!” Said Keiichiro Koyama (26).

Ideas thought up by the six members have been turned into reality during this tour, with the highlight being the “NEWS AIR Gondola”. Towards the end of the concert, each member hopped onto their gondola, taking them up 35 metres into the air. As the group performed “TEPPEN” from this height, fans sitting on the third floor could get a close up view of their stars, causing the 55,000 strong crowd to erupt in applause.

NEWS members were just as surprised at the impact of the gondolas, which were almost high enough to scrape the ceiling of Tokyo Dome.

“I never imagined it would be this high,” said Takahisa Masuda (24).

“We wanted to get as close as we could to where our fans were sitting,” said Tomohisa Yamashita (25).

It has been reported that the gondolas had taken two months to make, at a cost of 50-million yen (around US$600,000).

Masuda has also been reported to have designed the four costume outfits for this tour’s concerts, including mixing sequined camouflage pants with fake fur.

During their September 25 concert the group had announced the release of their next single “Fighting Man” on November 3.

Also on this day the press had teased Yamashita, asking him whether his girlfriend was in the crowd.

“I don’t have one. I’m in love with my fans,” Yamashita said.

Live! Live! Live! NEWS concerts will finish tomorrow night. Total crowd numbers for this concert tour are expected to reach 355,000 (two cities, seven concerts).

Source – Japan_now

Posted by JpopFun!

Actress Toda Erika (22) and actor Kase Ryo (35) took the stage today at TBS to present their new drama “SPEC”.She will be as a weird woman on this drama

Toda who was standing out in her role as Touma Saya, a weird woman and genius with an IQ of 201 who always has her left arm in a triangle bandage and never stands straight. “About 3-4 years ago I realized that while I need to have pride as an actress, I don’t need any kind of womanly pride for acting,” Toda was fully motivated about her role. “The director gave me instruction like, ‘I want you to pick your nose’. Of course it was a bit shocking at first, but no matter what filthy or cruel things he wants me to do, if he requests it, I’ll do it,” she explained and stated all the fun she had during the filming while not thinking about her image as a woman.

p/s – make my new list of drama to watch~

Source – KawaiJoyuu

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All-girl pop idol group AKB48 played rock-paper-scissors in front of around 11,000 fans at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo recently to select 16 members to sing on their 19th single CD, which will go on sale in December.

Through the ‘‘janken’’ hand game, Mayumi Uchida, 16, won the right to take center stage when singing the new song.

‘‘I was able to win first place because you all encouraged me,’’ a tearful Uchida told the audience upon her victory.

A total of 51 members including interns took part in the selection event.

The 16 members for the single are:

1. Mayumi Uchida
2. Haruka Ishida
3. Haruna Kojima
4. Haruka Nakagawa
5. Ami Maeda
6. Sumire Sato
7. Natsuki Sato
8. Aki Takajo
9. Tomomi Nakatsuka
10. Asuka Kuramochi
11. Kana Kobayashi
12. Miku Tanabe
13. Tomomi Kasai
14. Sakiko Matsui
15. Atsuko Maeda
16. Rina Chikano

p/s – lol~what a weird selection one~

Source – JapanToday

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A new CM for KIRIN’s low-malt beer, “Tanrei GREEN LABEL“, stars three of Arashi’s members: Ohno Satoshi, Aiba Masaki, and Matsumoto Jun. The CM just started airing on September 25th in Japan, and in the commercial, all three members go fishing together.

Arashi fans are already well aware that Ohno Satoshi loves fishing, but the CM shows that the beer is delicious enough to get Ohno to choose drinking over fishing!

source – tokyohive

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Former AKB48 member Mai Oshima (23) is now a regular on TV Asahi’s sports program “GET SPORTS” (Sunday nights, 12:30am). Starting on September 26, she will be in charge of a new segment called “Karada no Kyoukasho” (“The Body’s Textbook”), in which she presents the training regimen of a top-class athlete.

Each time, Oshima and one of the show’s hosts, Kiyotaka Nanbara (45), will attempt the same training, under the guidance of a professional trainer. They will also explore questions such as which part of the body the training affects, and why athletes have adopted that training. This is Oshima’s first regular role on an actual sports program. She commented that she was worried that her appearance on the show will cause the show’s image to change, but her sports background should be a good fit. Oshima used to play volleyball in junior high and has run a marathon twice.
Source – Tokyograph

Posted by JpopFun!